Hawke BlackWatch WP 8x42 binocular

Hawke has been carving out a niche as a supplier of quality, budget optics over the last few years. The company’s products now include 10 ranges of binocular as well as a selection of telescopes. We recently reviewed the roof-prism 8x42 Frontiers (Birdwatch 161: 46) – now it is the turn of the 8x42 BlackWatch porros.

This binocular gives an immediate impression of sturdiness and solidity, thanks to its all-encompassing rubber armouring, with grippy panels where required. At 770 g, it’s quite weighty for its class but nicely balanced, and my small hands had no trouble reaching all the important bits.

The twist-up eyecups have no intermediate settings – fully extended or fully retracted are the only options, and they don’t hold their position quite as firmly as they could when extended. The dioptre, mounted on the right eyepiece, does have a number of click-lock settings and is simple to operate. The focusing wheel turns smoothly if not exactly lightly – just over one full rotation takes you all the way from close to infinity. Optically, this binocular performs pretty well, especially given the price. The image was sharp and colour-neutral, with very little detectable colour fringing. I found the field of view a little restricted, I think because the eye relief was slightly too great for my eyes. The image was also distorted slightly at the edges – a weakness found in many porro-prisms. However, the depth of field was impressive – a real boon when watching large numbers of birds moving around at various distances. Close focus was not bad at three metres.

It’s been a while since I used a pair of 8x42 porro-prisms, but my very first (and second) binoculars were of this specification. I was impressed by how superior the BlackWatch model was to those in terms of image quality, ease of use and build. It also struck me how well they compared to my current bins – a model that was top-of-the-range just three or four years ago. Binocular technology has certainly come a very long way in a very short time and this is perhaps most evident at the budget end of the market. For £89.99 (including the comfy Neoprene-style strap), this binocular is an excellent buy.